Lead Author, The HCAHPS Imperative for Patient-Centered Excellence

Tag: Accountability

If you want to achieve world-class levels of performance in the patient experience (or any other key performance measures) you must create a culture of accountability in leaders for achieving results and ultimately aligning the actions and behaviors of staff and physicians to help reach desired outcomes. HealthStream Engagement Institute has coached nearly 60,000 leaders, staff, and physicians over the last 12 months and, through that coaching, we have seen some interesting trends:

Yet, when we ask leaders if we could tell the difference between their high, solid, and under-achieving performers based on their annual evaluations, we overwhelmingly hear a common response: “No.” This problem is so pervasive that on our HEI patient-centered excellence survey of nearly 25,000 responses, the lowest scoring items include tolerance for poor performers and employee input leads to change. These gaps are magnified because organizations are allowing poor performers to continue undermining success. Meanwhile, leaders fail to engage and recognize their high performers. You can put any performance system in place. What is typically missing is how to establish the right accountability for outcomes. In our work with America’s hospitals and health systems, we find four crucial elements to understanding your strengths and gaps for creating a roadmap to sustainable accountability.

The following items are a limited portion of the evaluation process that HEI uses to determine the state of organizational accountability. Take a look and see how your organization scores.

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

Phelps Memorial Hospital Center – Sleepy Hollow, NY

Phelps Memorial Hospital Center (PMHC) began a journey of transforming patient experience in February 2012, beginning with HEI’s Patient-Centered Excellence Assessment. That process provided them with a roadmap to improvement, part of which included enhancing their methods of leadership development and creating accountability for performance. Each level of leadership, from executives to frontline supervisors, has embraced their roles and responsibilities and committed to a long-term investment in their culture. As a result, PMHC has experienced drastically improved outcomes in employee engagement and the patient experience.

High-performing organizations create an environment of accountability where their top talent is aligned and engaged to produce the right results. This type of culture is pervasive throughout the continuum of employment, one which starts with the application and interview process and continues throughout the life cycle of an employee. An environment that is geared towards maximizing the potential of each member of its team and empowers them to improve things for themselves and those they serve will put your organization in the best position for success.

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Thinking of all the strong, powerful women on the CPQCC staff and at our member hospitals who work tirelessly to ensure that every pregnant woman and infant in California is given an equal chance to thrive. Today and every day we #Pressforprogress #IWD2018